"Arrow" Returns, And Here´s All You Need To Know

Starting Wednesday I
will be doing a review for each new
weekly episode of Arrow. As good
as the show is, I'm well aware that some people may not be caught up, so I figured I'd save you the trouble (though
you should seriously just go to Netflix and marathon the show immediately) and
give you a quick summary of what's been going in the world of Arrow, as well as
a few of my choices for vital episodes.

When it comes to the
character, it's easy to just label him as a Batman rip-off and be done with it
but the writers have done a good job of separating the two entities. Oliver has a looser set of morals that leads
to him killing a ridiculous number of people.
Never seen the caped crusader doing that. Otherwise, yeah he's a billionaire playboy
who has no super powers and is reliant on his skills, intellect, and gadgets to
get out of any given situation. So yeah,
he's a little like Batman.Let's kick things off with a rundown of the characters.

First our lead
character, Oliver Queen. He's been on a
constant quest for redemption, albeit for varying reasons depending on the
season. First having a tough time with
the police of Starling City, leading to a more Batman/Gordon relationship
between the vigilante and our favorite now-commissioner Lance. He lost both his parents (father at the
beginning of the show, mother during the second season) but neither were good
people. So I guess it's non-Batman in
that way. Like any lead character on a
CW show, Oliver has had his fair share of love interests, from his high school
sweet-heart Laurel, to her sister Sarah, to Felicity, to the Huntress, to…
yeah, there's a lot. Pretty typical but
the only one that has every really mattered is Felicity and the writer's know
that so they torture us with it. Speaking of whom…

Felicity is the best
character on the show. Oh I'm sorry,
you've seen the show and disagree with me?
Get out. The character went from
having a bit scene in an episode to joining the show as a regular with ease
because of the uniqueness of the character. Also she's gorgeous. But that's… Eh, I've lost all
credibility on the subject at this point haven't I? Regardless, she's the
"nerd" of the group that knows her way around a computer. Hits some stereotypes but still breaks out of
them on occasion. This season she's had
the most character growth, with her back story finally being brought up, and her mom
introduced, but it seems this is only the beginning. She's currently engaged in a "why won't
they just get together" relationship with Oliver. The writers hate us and have teased this
pairing for ages but have never fully pulled the trigger. He did say he loved her right before he went
off to fight Ra's Al Ghul so there's that.

Diggle is Oliver's
other main confidant and trust me when I say: he's a badass. They've done a good job making him a little
Alfred but also adding a brutal toughness a la James Rhodes (woah, did I just
make a Marvel reference when talking about a DC show? Who's the badass now?). He's reliable and is usually Oliver's moral compass. Wow, he really is like a badass Alfred isn't
he? He has connections with A.R.G.U.S. (This is DC's SHIELD but run by a scarier version of Nick Fury named Amanda Waller) which comes in handy every now and again.
Unfortunately we're treated to at least one side story a season
involving Diggle that doesn't really end up amounting to much and are usually
the weaker episodes of the season. So
here's hoping that can be avoided with the second half of season three.

Onto my least
favorite character of the show, Oliver's sister, Thea Queen. When I heard about a character being killed
in the season three premiere, I was not-so-secretly hoping it was Thea. Her job on the show has been the whine,
complain and get kidnapped. It hasn't
really been working out for her. They've
tried to add some dimension to her by making her train with season one bad-guy
(and Thea's real father) Malcom Merlin. Sure, she can kick ass now but does that really make her a better
character? I'm not so sure.

Probably one of the
bigger character developments in the shows history is the addition of Roy, who
would later become Red Arrow (although I don't think they've officially called
him this on the show. In fact, they just started calling him Arsenal). He starts out as
Thea's boyfriend so you can imagine how much I enjoyed his character in the beginning. But after a long haul of wondering
what on earth they were doing with his character, he became a staple of the
team and is now kicking all kinds of ass.
I imagine he takes over a lot of the crime-fighting duties now that
Oliver's gone (I'll get to that later). Maybe they'll drop the stupid Arsenal name and we'll finally get a
Red Arrow name drop?

Quentin Lance is the
father of Laurel and Sarah, and he is our story's Commissioner Gordon. Like how I say how these two entities aren't
the same then just keep making comparisons to them? Shut up, I need reference points. Anyway, depending on the season he's either
Detective, Captain or whatever else he's been called. He gets promoted/demoted a lot. It's hard to keep up. At this point in the show, he's Captain
Lance, and he's no longer hunting down Arrow and considering him a vigilante. Who's to say how long this partnership will
last, but I'm hoping a decent amount of time because the vigilante formula is
getting a little stale at this point.

Laurel Lance was
Oliver's stereotypical love interest who has since grown into a badass. She used to be a really bland doormat but they've since given her more to work with and helped break the character out of her shell. They threw a curveball by
giving her an alcohol dependency, adding a darker edge to an otherwise
one-dimensional character, and it worked out. Now that
she's been showing signs of taking over the crown of The Black Canary (see
later entry) the character has yet again proven she's one of the more
interesting characters to watch out for.

Sarah Lance has been
killed and brought back more times than R'as Al Ghul himself and currently
we're in a "she's dead" phase of the show. It's hard to say if they'll bring her back,
but they've done it before so never say never.
I've always found her to be stale and boring, coming in only to get in
the way of the rest of our beloved characters but she does have one redeeming quality: she's Black Canary. As you can see by the picture above, the Canary is a total badass. Too bad she has such a lame alter-ego. I say good riddance.
Unfortunately the characters don't think so as Sarah's death has been a
catalyst to the current season.

There's been various
villains throughout Arrow's run but the "Big Bad" (definition: a
season spanning bad guy) is usually pretty memorable. First it was the Dark Archer, Malcom Merlin,
whose powers consisted of being a bad version of Arrow. Get that from the name? Well congrats, this isn't a prize show. The second season brought us Deathstroke
himself, Slade Wilson, who is a fan favorite to this day. Unfortunately Slade is locked away, but Merlin
is still around. This season's Big Bad is Batman villain Ra's Al Gul and trust me when I say that he's been screwing things up for the Arrow team for sometime now. His fight with Oliver? Yeah, I'd probably consider that to be his greatest offense though. The actor they cast could have been better (how great would it have been if Oded Fehr had taken the role?) but the gravitas behind the character is enough to carry it.

Now that you know
everything about the characters that you'd possibly need to, time to move on to
the episodes. With the mid-season
premiere less than a week away, it'd be impossible to binge the seasons (okay
not impossible but you do have a life,
don't you?) so I thought I'd provide you with five essentials. These should help you get a good handle on
the show. Don't like them? Then chances are that this show isn't for
you.

"The
Pilot" - 1x1

"The
Sacrifice" - 1x23

"Seeing Red" - 2x20

"Unthinkable" - 2x23

"The Climb" - 3x09

So let's see, with
all that wonderful information, where exactly are we at once episode 10
commences on Wednesday January 24th?
Most importantly: Oliver is dead. That's right, they killed off not only the main character, but the lead who the show is named after! Ballsy move. He was killed by Ra's Al Ghul in an epic fight in the midseason finale,
where he was stabbed and then pushed down a pit. Anyone with any knowledge of the DC universe
know that the words "death" and "pit" usually don't equal "permadeath". Yes, the Lazarus Pit should be
making an appearance, likely bringing with it the return of our favorite
character. I'm sure that won't be
happening for several episodes though.
Until then, we just get to deal with a lot of sad/angry characters
looking to get some revenge and as has been the case with this show in the
past, it's at its strongest when revenge is on the menu.

Here's a preview of
the upcoming season:

If you haven't
already been hooked by Arrow fever, then I hope this article helped catch you
up. The second half of season three
starts on Wednesday, so check back here to see what I thought of it!

About
zombievictim

I'd like my writing to further represent me as a person by providing different insights into the things currently on my mind. Whether it's writing about a movie, TV show, album, book, wrestling event, experience, or life lesson. I don't plan on making this a personal blog where I treat it like a diary. This is just supposed to represent… Me.